Paper Type Settings?

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

On some printer software, you can choose what type of paper you are
using, plain, glossy, transparency, card stock, and some others. There
are other settings for quality, so what does this setting do? What would
the printer do differently for the different types of paper?

 

[Ed Ruf]

On some printer software, you can choose what type of paper you are
using, plain, glossy, transparency, card stock, and some others. There
are other settings for quality, so what does this setting do? What would
the printer do differently for the different types of paper?

It can restrict or expand the settings available. For instance if you
choose plain paper there no reason to enable the highest quality photo
settings.

 

[frederick]

On some printer software, you can choose what type of paper you are
using, plain, glossy, transparency, card stock, and some others. There
are other settings for quality, so what does this setting do? What would
the printer do differently for the different types of paper?

Assuming that you are referring to an inkjet printer, it is going to
vary the total amount of ink, and may also vary the ratio of each colour
ink to allow for the colour of the paper type selected.

Quality settings are probably mainly going to affect the dots per inch
of ink droplets applied. Lower quality settings = less dots per inch,
probably faster printing and less ink used, and of course less quality.

Text only (versus image) settings may switch to use a different black
ink from the one used for images - that is less likely to "bleed" on
plain paper, so gives sharper edged text, and may be more water
resistant on plain paper.

An old HP deskjet that I still use for documents gives perfectly
adequate print quality in "draft" mode for most uses. I leave it set on
that by default, as it is much faster and uses much less ink.

 

[Stevelee]

On some printer software, you can choose what type of paper you are
using, plain, glossy, transparency, card stock, and some others. There
are other settings for quality, so what does this setting do? What would
the printer do differently for the different types of paper?

Each type of paper setting tells the driver software to use a different profile
for the printer to print.

 

[me]

On some printer software, you can choose what type of paper you are
using, plain, glossy, transparency, card stock, and some others. There
are other settings for quality, so what does this setting do? What would
the printer do differently for the different types of paper?

I presume you are thinking inkjet, obviously there is a variety of paper
that goes in, if its cheap copy paper you don't want it on its best
setting laying down too much ink or you will end up with a soggy mess.
If you are putting in thick coated card then it will generally want to
go slower and lay down more ink to get a better quality output.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Manufacturers create "profiles" for many of their own papers. Each
paper has a number of unique characteristics: how much ink it will
absorb, how large each dot will grow before drying, drying time or
absorption of the ink. How much ink will cause the paper to over
saturate at different densities, (meaning these settings vary not just
universally, but based upon the density of an area and color.)

Papers responded to different ink colors slightly differently as well,
so a set of look up tables are created to translate the basic data
curves generated by the printer program and adjusted for the paper being
used.

Although it is not perfect, it is a good starting point. Again,
remember that 3rd party inks and papers (particularly papers) may alter
how well the output will look, because the profiles are designed around
the specific paper types mentioned in the driver.


Art